1. Field of the Invention
The disclosed invention generally pertains to the field of fuel accounting jet fuel, and more specifically, to a system and method for verifying that fuel to be paid for has in fact been received and dispensed to an organization's designated equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a long felt need among organizations operating aircraft to better record, validate, and verify the amount of fuel dispensed from a fueling agent into an aircraft. Typically, an organization's method for collecting such data is paper-based fuel tickets provided directly by the fueling agent at the airport where the aircraft is refueled. In many cases, the fuel tickets are received at several different airports and are sent to a central location and manually entered into an accounting system. This process can lead to key entry errors, lost tickets, and critical time loss waiting for fuel tickets to arrive at the central location to be processed. This problem is even more prevalent at many International airports where organizations may have fewer personnel on hand to handle fuel tickets and make sure they are properly processed.
In addition, these organizations are relying on data supplied by the fueling agent without any independent data to verify what is received from the fueling agent is accurate. This can lead to inaccuracy in fuel dispensed, i.e., uplifted, into aircraft and added fuel expense, having an enormous impact on the organization's profitability. Fuel expense is a major cost for organizations operating aircraft as demonstrated in statistics reported by the United States Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics stating airline's fuel uplifted for 2006 was over seventeen billion gallons at an expense of thirty-four billion dollars. At times when fuel prices increase, these inaccuracies will become more of a factor in an organization operating aircraft's profitability.
Attempts have been made to better record fueling data as disclosed in U.S. Pub. No. 2005/0267673 entitled “Multiple Fueler Operations for Fuel Information Messaging System.” This application teaches a fuel management system for fueling aircraft that enables multiple fueling agents to service an aircraft simultaneously. The system tracks and reports the amount of fuel provided by each fueling agent for determination of the total amount of fuel dispensed to the aircraft. Each fueling agent reads the starting and ending fuel gauge or dipstick readings as well as the amount of fuel dispensed and uses a handheld Fueling Agent Client Device to transmit fuel gauge readings and the amount of fuel dispensed for the purpose of producing a fuel ticket in hard copy or electronic form for delivery to the aircraft pilot. Though the amount of fuel dispensed into the aircraft is validated, it is validated based on data provided by the fueling agent(s). In addition, the end result is the production of a fuel ticket that does not address the need for front-end data capture. Thus, in the application, there is no front-end data capture of a fueling event and no information flow for reporting the amount of fuel dispensed into an aircraft that is not under the control of the fueling agent(s).
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,058 entitled “Method and Systems for Controlling the Service for an Aircraft” teaches a system with a central computer that receives information from the administrative database of the airport for purposes of servicing the aircraft while parked at an airport and downloads this information to several local computer units that are stationed in servicing units. This information can then be used by the servicing units to automatically service the aircraft such as refueling. Once the servicing is complete, the local computer unit transmits information received during servicing back to the central computer. In the case of refueling, the central computer can then calculate the amount of fuel dispensed and create a fuel ticket. Though the patent addresses a concern of better servicing aircraft by minimizing the chance for human error, it still does not address the airlines concerns over better fuel accounting and affording them more control over verifying what fuel is dispensed into their aircraft.
Thus a need in the art exists to facilitate the front-end data capture and validation of a fueling event and more specifically the front-end data capture and validation of a fueling event by the organization operating the aircraft via a data pathway not under control of a fueling agent. In addition to verifying that fuel to be paid for has in fact been dispensed for better fuel management, such a system and method would ideally reduce the amount of personnel needed, facilitate timely fuel data, reduce missing fuel tickets, increase airport accountability, increase fuel data integrity, increase visibility of timely fuel data to such business functions as accounting, inventory management and procurement, increase accuracy of fuel related planning decisions, provide more efficient and accurate data capture, or combinations of one or more of these objectives.